Weblog 238
August 29, 2010~ 12:00 am
It was cool and LOVELY in Pittsburgh the past few days, and Saturday evening was perfect for movie viewing. Although I'd used up my '2 movies per month' from Netflix, Wayne and I ventured down to Family Video and rented a film I'd only learned about this week...a scary Indie film (made 'on the cheap'- for 11,000.00) --that has grossed millions now, bought up by Paramount for distribution. If you've not watched
"PARANORMAL ACTIVITY" yet, rent it. (Its Part 2 sequel is due out soon; I guess that's how I stumbled upon the 2007 original this week) -by watching a trailer at work for the new one and then going back to find the original. The shivers come from the same place that sent icewater down my spine when I watched the 'The Haunting' back in the early 60's: it's what is not seen-- merely heard, merely guessed at, that's so frightening.
This film was made with hand-held cameras. A young couple realize that 'something' in their house is disturbing their sleep, ao the young fella buys some electronic equipment (camera, EVP recording apparatus, etc.) to try and catch what is happening on film. His live-in girlfriend is terrified-- she's been 'visited' in her life before by lurking shadows at the foot of her bed, and things that go bump in the night. The young man is determined to combat whatever it is, and put an end to it.
There are many nerve-biting segments watching the time tick away in the right hand corner of the screen, and hearing thumps and scratches and muted growls. The two actors- (each paid only 500 dollars for making this film) were marvelously believable. The girl who plays the ill-fated Katie
is terrifically fresh, her terror palpable. I guess it's because both actors are so likeable, that the viewer is drawn in totally to their predicament. When Micah's picture shows some scarred damage during a nighttime rampage with broken glass sounds
you know that bad things are on the horizon for this self-appointed ghost-hunter. If you like a good old-fashioned fright fest ... a scary movie without the gore and special effects that pepper so MUCH of what is normally considered 'chill thrills', you'll love this one. Rent it. It's just right for the Halloween time of year quickly approaching.
Thinking about things that give me the heebie-jeebies, I stumbled on some 1923 pictures published in the National Geographic documenting the discovery and opening of Tutankhamun's tomb...(I've always been fascinated by the creepiness of disturbing what had been 'lost' to civilization for so many centuries, meant to stay lost, stay protected from peering eyes.)
I see those adventurers standing in the desert sun, desecrating sacred burial chambers, and it gives me shivers. There's always been something 'creepy' too, about the native workers who helped them. I'll just bet they despised the outsiders who came to dig up their national treasures......
even the animals look strange. Have you ever seen such a shaggy, hairy donkey? LOL!!! Cute as the dickens, but yes........strange. Then to have chambers opened, filled with dust and molds of centuries past, the burnished gold finding light for the first time in hundreds of years.... all those prying, greedy eyes.......
then CARRIED OFF...out into the unforgiving sun of a modern world hungry for a look at what should have remained buried. Remained sacred and undisturbed...
GUARDED by the Pharaoh's own protectors, casting shadows that seem to MOVE......like Karloff from 'The Mummy'
numbered and catalogued. Taken. After all those painstaking preparations in order to insure the 'boy king' would be sent off to a peaceful afterlife.......it was a sacrilege, to be sure. Stolen right out of the burial chamber itself
-nothing more than high-falutin' grave robbery.
If you're as curious as I am about that whole saga..... (and of course, the CURSE of King Tut) you may want to pay a visit to Crystal Links, and check out TUT'S TOMB and read about it for yourself. (Whether you believe in the curse or not, there sure was a passel of mysterious deaths connected with those original adventurers.) They can't all be 'coincidence'.
Let sleeping dogs lie, I say.......(and kings.) And curses. Some mysteries are not to be opened, some wells not to be plumbed. That's my two cents anyway.
(As to the 'non-smoking' thing started this past week......let me say that I am pleased.) No....I'm not yet a total non-smoker, but I have it down to extremely light. Just a few a day, rolled myself. The cost negligible, and my personal satisfaction in what I've been able to accomplish in one week- the money saved........well, I'm sure pleased with myself. (After 43 years, this is not and easy thing at all)..... but it's a start.
I'll get there, I guarantee it. The hold loosens by the day (and the trouble it takes to get out the damn tobacco, the paper tubes and the plastic thing-a-ma-jig to make just one, is a pain in the ass. LOL!! Good thing I'm such a lazy so-and so. Every little trial helps me along the way. Keep me in your thoughts. Shoot me some good ones. :)
August 29, 2010~ 7:30 pm
I've discovered an AMAZING artist, brilliant caricaturist. Just look at this little guy...
He's now my WALLPAPER! I just love him! He makes me happy, with those lipstick kisses all over his head. LOL!! For more of this fabulous artist, click on Tiago Hoisel. You will find his tremendous talent, humor and canny appreciation of individual character. What a terrific artist!
August 31, 2010~ 6:30 pm
Now......for all things SQUIRREL!!
CLICK on that cutie to view a whole montage of squirrel photos taken by at true "squirrel afficianado" from CMU. That young fella loves his squirrels......as I do! And their active season is coming up, scrurrying about, grabbing acorns and burying them, leaping from tree to tree, the acrobats of fall! (There's a nest of these guys- I at first thought it was only one) - but in a hole high up in a false wall at work, they've managed to gouge a round porthole near the top. LOL!! They peek out at me when I walk over and begin to whistle. Not just a dog-type whistle, but spritely tunes. If I stand about 10 feet away around 8 or 9 a.m. and start to whistle a song- out pops a head! Then another, close beside it. Paws poke out of the edge....the one in the back will pat the head of the one in front until she leaps out onto a tree branch. (I call her Itchy. As SOON as she's out, she starts rapidly SCRATCHING to beat the band. Close quarters and all that.) The other stays inside and blinks and blinks his liquid black eyes at me.......but I'm convinced they like the music. They sure pay attention!
Squirrels are a symbols of happiness to me. They just are. They play and chase one another, they RISK everything in their clowning acrobatics, and just BRIM with LIFE! If you're out walking this fall, pay attention to these characters. I guarantee you'll feel whatever troubles you have begin to lift for a while. They do that. They defy gravity......in every way. Ours too.
***
(Return To Weekly Archives)
It was cool and LOVELY in Pittsburgh the past few days, and Saturday evening was perfect for movie viewing. Although I'd used up my '2 movies per month' from Netflix, Wayne and I ventured down to Family Video and rented a film I'd only learned about this week...a scary Indie film (made 'on the cheap'- for 11,000.00) --that has grossed millions now, bought up by Paramount for distribution. If you've not watched
"PARANORMAL ACTIVITY" yet, rent it. (Its Part 2 sequel is due out soon; I guess that's how I stumbled upon the 2007 original this week) -by watching a trailer at work for the new one and then going back to find the original. The shivers come from the same place that sent icewater down my spine when I watched the 'The Haunting' back in the early 60's: it's what is not seen-- merely heard, merely guessed at, that's so frightening.
This film was made with hand-held cameras. A young couple realize that 'something' in their house is disturbing their sleep, ao the young fella buys some electronic equipment (camera, EVP recording apparatus, etc.) to try and catch what is happening on film. His live-in girlfriend is terrified-- she's been 'visited' in her life before by lurking shadows at the foot of her bed, and things that go bump in the night. The young man is determined to combat whatever it is, and put an end to it.
There are many nerve-biting segments watching the time tick away in the right hand corner of the screen, and hearing thumps and scratches and muted growls. The two actors- (each paid only 500 dollars for making this film) were marvelously believable. The girl who plays the ill-fated Katie
is terrifically fresh, her terror palpable. I guess it's because both actors are so likeable, that the viewer is drawn in totally to their predicament. When Micah's picture shows some scarred damage during a nighttime rampage with broken glass sounds
you know that bad things are on the horizon for this self-appointed ghost-hunter. If you like a good old-fashioned fright fest ... a scary movie without the gore and special effects that pepper so MUCH of what is normally considered 'chill thrills', you'll love this one. Rent it. It's just right for the Halloween time of year quickly approaching.
Thinking about things that give me the heebie-jeebies, I stumbled on some 1923 pictures published in the National Geographic documenting the discovery and opening of Tutankhamun's tomb...(I've always been fascinated by the creepiness of disturbing what had been 'lost' to civilization for so many centuries, meant to stay lost, stay protected from peering eyes.)
I see those adventurers standing in the desert sun, desecrating sacred burial chambers, and it gives me shivers. There's always been something 'creepy' too, about the native workers who helped them. I'll just bet they despised the outsiders who came to dig up their national treasures......
even the animals look strange. Have you ever seen such a shaggy, hairy donkey? LOL!!! Cute as the dickens, but yes........strange. Then to have chambers opened, filled with dust and molds of centuries past, the burnished gold finding light for the first time in hundreds of years.... all those prying, greedy eyes.......
then CARRIED OFF...out into the unforgiving sun of a modern world hungry for a look at what should have remained buried. Remained sacred and undisturbed...
GUARDED by the Pharaoh's own protectors, casting shadows that seem to MOVE......like Karloff from 'The Mummy'
numbered and catalogued. Taken. After all those painstaking preparations in order to insure the 'boy king' would be sent off to a peaceful afterlife.......it was a sacrilege, to be sure. Stolen right out of the burial chamber itself
-nothing more than high-falutin' grave robbery.
If you're as curious as I am about that whole saga..... (and of course, the CURSE of King Tut) you may want to pay a visit to Crystal Links, and check out TUT'S TOMB and read about it for yourself. (Whether you believe in the curse or not, there sure was a passel of mysterious deaths connected with those original adventurers.) They can't all be 'coincidence'.
Let sleeping dogs lie, I say.......(and kings.) And curses. Some mysteries are not to be opened, some wells not to be plumbed. That's my two cents anyway.
(As to the 'non-smoking' thing started this past week......let me say that I am pleased.) No....I'm not yet a total non-smoker, but I have it down to extremely light. Just a few a day, rolled myself. The cost negligible, and my personal satisfaction in what I've been able to accomplish in one week- the money saved........well, I'm sure pleased with myself. (After 43 years, this is not and easy thing at all)..... but it's a start.
I'll get there, I guarantee it. The hold loosens by the day (and the trouble it takes to get out the damn tobacco, the paper tubes and the plastic thing-a-ma-jig to make just one, is a pain in the ass. LOL!! Good thing I'm such a lazy so-and so. Every little trial helps me along the way. Keep me in your thoughts. Shoot me some good ones. :)
August 29, 2010~ 7:30 pm
I've discovered an AMAZING artist, brilliant caricaturist. Just look at this little guy...
He's now my WALLPAPER! I just love him! He makes me happy, with those lipstick kisses all over his head. LOL!! For more of this fabulous artist, click on Tiago Hoisel. You will find his tremendous talent, humor and canny appreciation of individual character. What a terrific artist!
August 31, 2010~ 6:30 pm
Now......for all things SQUIRREL!!
CLICK on that cutie to view a whole montage of squirrel photos taken by at true "squirrel afficianado" from CMU. That young fella loves his squirrels......as I do! And their active season is coming up, scrurrying about, grabbing acorns and burying them, leaping from tree to tree, the acrobats of fall! (There's a nest of these guys- I at first thought it was only one) - but in a hole high up in a false wall at work, they've managed to gouge a round porthole near the top. LOL!! They peek out at me when I walk over and begin to whistle. Not just a dog-type whistle, but spritely tunes. If I stand about 10 feet away around 8 or 9 a.m. and start to whistle a song- out pops a head! Then another, close beside it. Paws poke out of the edge....the one in the back will pat the head of the one in front until she leaps out onto a tree branch. (I call her Itchy. As SOON as she's out, she starts rapidly SCRATCHING to beat the band. Close quarters and all that.) The other stays inside and blinks and blinks his liquid black eyes at me.......but I'm convinced they like the music. They sure pay attention!
Squirrels are a symbols of happiness to me. They just are. They play and chase one another, they RISK everything in their clowning acrobatics, and just BRIM with LIFE! If you're out walking this fall, pay attention to these characters. I guarantee you'll feel whatever troubles you have begin to lift for a while. They do that. They defy gravity......in every way. Ours too.
(Return To Weekly Archives)
...
. or pay a visit to my Audio site to hear things
I've written- 
Some are just 'jotters', thoughts as they fly- going
nowhere but where they are. If you stop and read a few~ or post a
few~ thanks for
the perusal. Last of all, if you've a hankering for rants and raging,
try making a stop at my other blog- 
